Ibn al-Jawzī received a traditional religious education, and, upon the completion of his studies, he chose a teaching career, becoming by 1161 the master of two religious colleges. A fervent adherent of Ḥanbalī doctrine (one of the four schools of Islāmic Islamic law), he was a noted preacher whose sermons were conservative in viewpoint and supported the religious policies of the Baghdad ruling establishment. In return he was favoured by the caliphs, and by 1178/79 he had become the master of five colleges and the leading Ḥanbalī spokesman of Baghdad.

In the decade 1170–80, he attained the height of his power. Becoming a semi-official inquisitor, he constantly searched for doctrinal heresies. He attacked and instigated persecutions against those who he felt had deviated from strict traditionalist IslāmIslam. He was particularly critical of Ṣūfīs Sufis (Muslim mystics) and of theologians who practiced Shīʿi Islām Islam (one of the two major branches of IslāmIslam). His zeal antagonized many liberal theologians. His power within the Baghdad establishment owed a great deal to his excellent relations with successive caliphs and their advisers. The arrest in 1194 of Ibn Yūnus, his old friend and patron, marked the end of Ibn al-Jawzī’s career and his close links with governmental circles. In that year he was arrested and exiled to the city of Wāsiṭ. He was partially rehabilitated on the eve of his death and allowed to return to Baghdad.

Ibn al-Jawzī’s scholarly works reflected his adherence to Ḥanbalī doctrine. Much of his work was of a hagiographical and polemical nature. Of particular interest was his Ṣifat aṣ-Ṣafwah (“Attributes of Mysticism”), an extensive history of mysticism, which argued that the true mystics were those who modelled their lives on the Companions of the Prophet.